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The North Lands or the Waste

I almost posted this in my Craefort thread in the Buildings/Structures WIP forum, but I thought it better to post it where it belongs. I kind of want to keep the thread together, since it all belongs in the same campaign setting.

I just couldn't stick with using Celanta, I needed specific terrain features, especially that glacial field and glaciers coming out of the northern mountains, things specific to my setting.

The North Lands - home to Pict and the Winter Hag

The only reason this in WIP, rather than finished, is I plan to place a few more locations at the campaign ideas develope - like the Hall of the Frost Giant King in the upper valley from the Crae lands, and Donal Barrow north of the Broch Tower. More stuff like that as I think of it.

Almost finished though - about 2+ hours to created using Xara Xtreme, I had to do it twice, I messed up saving it once. So it more work than I planned.

Another great map Gamerprinter. I love the way you do mountains in Xara. They look very realistic with their snowy peaks. I don't care too much for your realistic forest textures, like you used in your map in Celanta. But in this map those realistic vegetation images are barely noticeable. So I like this map better than Celanta.

I do like the ice that Morkhdull added in that bay. That might be something you want to add yourself. The transparent white sheet doesn't do it for me.

That's an error...

Originally Posted by Gandwarf

Another great map Gamerprinter. I love the way you do mountains in Xara. They look very realistic with their snowy peaks. I don't care too much for your realistic forest textures, like you used in your map in Celanta. But in this map those realistic vegetation images are barely noticeable. So I like this map better than Celanta.

I do like the ice that Morkhdull added in that bay. That might be something you want to add yourself. The transparent white sheet doesn't do it for me.

That's strange, because I didn't place a transparent white sheet on this map, see the broken ice in the bay - I placed those, the water around is supposed to be dark blue like the bottom.

Even after export I brought this into PS to increase the JPG compression and this "white transparent sheet" was not there. So I don't know what happened, I will fix and upload again.

There is supposed to be a lightened shallow area near the coast, that's not transparent ice, theres also a white halo for surf - there is no intended frozen sea in this image.

That's strange, because I didn't place a transparent white sheet on this map, see the broken ice in the bay - I placed those, the water around is supposed to be dark blue like the bottom.

Even after export I brought this into PS to increase the JPG compression and this "white transparent sheet" was not there. So I don't know what happened, I will fix and upload again.

There is supposed to be a lightened shallow area near the coast, that's not transparent ice, theres also a white halo for surf - there is no intended frozen sea in this image.

GP

Eh, you are losing me here. The transparent white sheet I was talking about is in Morkhdull's version of your map. Are we talking about the same thing?

Also, I only just now noticed you have placed broken ice as well. Cool. It's just so small I didn't notice it at first. I think the large pieces of broken ice in Morkhdulls version look a bit better. That can be just taste of course.

I was confused...

Sorry, I now see that Morkdhull made the transparent ice sheet, I thought that was something my file did - I was confused.

Regarding the "Ice Age" north - it is the land that is locked in the last vestiges of an ice age, not the planet. The Winter Hag is the goddess that maintains the Ice Age, she had been the power in force when the Ice Age was active and did cap the northern hemisphere.

So I don't want the sea to be frozen here. Should the Winter Hag get her way, then the whole northern hemisphere would again be covered in ice, but as of this map, this has not come to pass.

For the north, think of Alaska, then make it colder longer with heavier winters and you've got the Pictish Northlands.

GP

PS: the forest texture I used was just a bumpy green texture, from I don't know where - had it in my tile collection forever. Its not a photo of forest, rather just a bumpy green texture.

PPS: I didn't want to cover that entire bay with ice. If you notice a glacier is ending from that valley and the ice I placed is being shorn off the glacier, that whole bay shouldn't be frozen. But I might do it just the same, those larger ice pieces do look good.

Made some changes...

OK, I made some changes to the map. I added the larger ice chunks in the bay beneath the glacier's mouth. I does look better, I think. I added a couple more rivers on the north and eastern coast from the mountains in the far north.

And just for SG, I changed the font in the title graphics, though it might be just as overly complex as the previous, however I am trying to denote the culture in the font. This one is more Celtic whereas the previous one is rather too Anglo Saxon in style.